My primary area of interest is American Romanticism, particularly Henry David Thoreau and Transcendentalism. However, I am, at heart, a reader who loves good writing from any time and place. I was a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Bucharest, Romania, from 1986 to 1988 and at the University of Tirana, Albania, from 1992 to 1994. I drive a 1968 VW Beetle and have been a Cub fan since 1956.